


stay away from the hooks

by lagatos



Series: wild open space (Beach House AU) [2]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F, beach house au, it's fishin time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-02
Updated: 2014-09-02
Packaged: 2018-02-15 20:17:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2242050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lagatos/pseuds/lagatos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Korra and Asami are twelve years old and do what twelve year olds do--get awkward when they get too close and then tease each other mercilessly</p>
            </blockquote>





	stay away from the hooks

**Author's Note:**

> my free trial of ms office ends today so i'll just post this now and then hope for the best later

The boards creaked underneath their feet as they climbed the steps past the old archway, peeling letters spelling out _Republic Beach Pier_. Korra tried to maneuver her fishing pole around the entry but still managed to whack the end of her pole into the old sign.

“I still can’t believe you don’t know how to fish yet.”

Korra shot her a glare as she adjusted her grip on the bait cooler. “It can’t be that hard.”

Asami shook her head in disappointment. “Twelve summers at a beach house and you still haven’t fished.”

Korra grit her teeth, stopping herself from retorting with _Why didn’t you teach me then?_ Fishing was Asami and her dad’s thing. After her mom died, it seemed like one of the only things that kept them together. Kept them coming to the beach house. Korra took in a sharp breath, gripping the pole in her hands. She was going to learn how to fish with Asami.

They got to the end of the pier and waved to Korra’s parents out on the sand, their blue umbrella tiny dots of color back on the beach. Korra looked down the pier, at the other fishermen sitting in beach chairs, looking out at the waves.

“I can’t believe this old thing hasn’t fallen apart yet.”

“If we’re lucky, it’ll break under your fat head and you’ll fall right into the ocean.” Asami grinned and handed her a piece of the fishing pole, talking over any insults Korra was ready to fire back. “See the little hoops going up the pole? Now thread the line through them.”

Korra grumbled but complied, feeding the line through with clumsy hands. “What did your dad say about dinner tonight?”

“He said we can come over for burgers tonight!”

“Think we’ll catch any fish to add to the grill?”

“Hmmm….I don’t know.” Asami tapped her chin with the hand not covered in squid slime. “I’m fishing with a total amateur, but I guess I could make it work.”

She laughed as Korra pushed her away, waving her squid hand in Korra’s face in retaliation.

“Okay.” She handed the baited pole back to Korra. “You try casting first.”

“Uh.” Korra held the line away from her, wary of the hook on the other end. “Shouldn’t I watch you first?”

“No, come on! You have to dive right in, that’s what my dad made me do. It’s okay, I’ll walk you through it.” She stood behind Korra, watching her movements. “Okay, see where you reel it in? Yeah, pull that lever down—no—yeah, okay that thing. Now you can cast.”

“Right now?”

“Hold on, put your thumb on the line, right where you’re gripping the pole. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Now you’re gonna pull back—watch the hook!—and let it fly. But take your thumb off the line as your swinging so you can cast it.”

Korra bit her lip, awkwardly holding the pole over her left shoulder, trying to be extra careful of the hook. “Like this?”

“Yeah, great. Let it go!”

She whipped the pole forward and the lure fell two feet in front of them, hitting the water with a splash. Korra snorted.

“Okay, that was good! You just had your thumb on the line for too long. Here.” Asami snaked her arms around Korra, holding the pole over Korra’s hands. Korra fidgeted, aware of Asami’s front hovering close to her back in the morning heat. “Don’t be afraid of the hook,” she said as she pressed her thumb over Korra’s on the line and pulled back. “And just—”

She jerked her arm forward and the line went sailing, thunking into the water a good ways away. The momentum of the cast sent Asami knocking right against Korra and she blushed furiously, noticing every moment Asami kept her front pressed up against her.

“See? We did it!”

Asami moved to reel in the line just as Korra did, their hands bumping together. “Uh.” Asami immediately let go, pulling her arms away and stepping to stand beside her. They watched the lure get pulled in closer, closer, until it finally broke the surface.

“Okay, only fifty more times until we might actually catch something.”

 

 

“I got a fish, I got a fish!”

Asami looked up from the tattered paperback she was reading and immediately threw it aside at the sight of Korra frantically trying to reel something in.

“Okay, slowly—don’t pull too fast—pull it in, pull it in!”

They both jumped up and down as the fish broke the surface and flopped uselessly on the line. “Put it on the ground!”

The fish writhed around on the old, worn boards of the pier and Asami and Korra glanced at each other. “Okay. You take it off the hook.”

“Um.”

Korra watched Asami wind a piece of dark hair around her finger. “Um?”

Asami looked down at the fish, eyes wide. “My dad usually does this part.” The fish flopped over Korra’s shoe, its unblinking eye staring up at her.

“Okay. It shouldn’t be that hard.”

She reached down to grab the fish and Asami stopped her, handing her a dirty hand towel. “My dad usually holds the fish with this.”

“Why? Are the fins spiky?”

Asami shrugged her shoulders and Korra leaned down, wrapping the flopping fish in the towel and grabbing onto the hook. She pulled at it, trying to twist it out of the fish’s mouth, but it kept flopping around, until she was convinced she just wedged the hook in deeper. “You try.”

Korra held the toweled fish down as Asami bent down, twisting gently at the hook. The fish struggled violently against Korra’s hold.

“I’m hurting it!”

“Well, how are we supposed to get the hook out?”

Korra squeezed her eyes shut for a second and then grabbed the hook from Asami, yanking the line as hard as she could.

“Wait, Korra—!”

She pulled harder and the hook came free, a piece of what looked like the fish’s jaw stuck on the line. Asami took her hands off the fish slowly, watching the line in Korra’s hand sway gently in the breeze

“Ew.”

 

 

“Wow, you girls caught this all by yourself?”

Asami stood on her tiptoes to grab a cup from Senna and Tonraq’s cupboard, trying her hardest to wrap her fingers around a glass.

“Yeah, it was great!” Korra said, reaching up to grab the cup Asami had been reaching for and handing it to her. Asami stuck out her tongue and filled it up at the sink. “I even pulled out the hook!”

Tonraq sat at the head of the table, already pulling a burger onto his plate. “Impressive!”

Korra joined Asami at the sink and grinned, bumping her shoulder against hers. “Shorty.”

Asami plopped an ice cube into her water and made a face at Korra. “I’ll be taller than you one day,” she said, walking over to sit next to her dad at the table.

She watched Mr. Sato cut out a piece of fish and place it gently on Asami’s plate, exclaiming at the great catch the girls had. Asami turned around in her seat, smiling widely at Korra and pulling the bottom of her lip out in imitation of Korra’s desperate struggle with the hook.

“Ew.”

**Author's Note:**

> my apologies for any fish related inaccuracies. i've only ever fished when my dad let me use his fishing pole at the beach.


End file.
